Times Quick Cryptic 1786 by Juno

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

A quick start but then things slowed down. My final gaps were the two crossers – at 6dn/12ac and 16dn/18ac where there were some unfamiliar terms. Finally completed just shy of 12 minutes – so, for me at least, somewhat sticky. 13ac won the COD competition.

ACROSS

1. When speaking, leaves puddings (8)
DESSERTS – homophone (when speaking) of leaves – deserts.
5. Vagrant finally failing to find public transport (4)
TRAM – vagrant (TRAM)p – finally failing.
9. Transport ruminants, about 54 (7)
DELIVER – ruminants (DEER) about 54 (LIV – roman numerals).
10. Poet and old priest to back (5)
ELIOT – old priest (ELI), to backwards (OT).
11. Beer barrel a German holds (5)
LAGER – held inside barre(L A GER)man.
12. Bog plant Rod tore in a frenzy (7)
REDROOT – anagram (in a frenzy) of ROD TORE. Redroot has woolly yellow flowers and roots that yield a red dye – now we know. I needed all the checkers to fit the pieces together.
13. Go off with a tank and yellow digger (9)
ROTAVATOR – go off (ROT) with a tank (A VAT) and yellow (OR – in heraldry its metal gold which is yellow-ish).
18. Closed group, as requested (2,5)
TO ORDER – took a while to see that closed = (TO – as in a door), group (ORDER).
20. Note lass is like a Queen!
REGAL – note – do, (RE), mi, girl (GAL). Famous in the Sound of Music where Maria used a song to teach the solfege (or solfeggio – the teaching of the essentials of music theory) of the major musical scale to the Von Trapp children. We crosswordland learn.
21. Labour candidate finally producing fine material (5)
TOILE – labour (TOIL), candidat(E).
22. Hated vicar I escorted (7)
REVILED – vicar (REV), I (I), escorted (LED).
23. Dull hosts run trading centre (4)
MART – dull (MAT – variant spelling of matt apparently) hosts run (R).
24. Emphasised fantastic des res on street (8)
STRESSED – anagram (fantastic) of DES RES on (after) street (ST).

DOWN

1. Detective Inspector had led corrupt swindle (6)
DIDDLE – Detective Inspector had (DI’D), anagram (corrupt) of LED.
2. Stage in endlessly severe horse race (2,5)
ST LEGER – stage (LEG) in endlessly severe (STER)n.
3. Young fish always crossing lake (5)
ELVER – always (EVER) crossing lake (L).
4. Sailor‘s dark waterproof coat (3)
TAR – double definition.
6. At first, rent handled in old money (5)
RHINO – (R)ent (H)andled, in (IN), old (O). Collins (reliably, I’m sure) informs me that rhino is slang for money.
7. Drastically alter letter from Greek gallery (6)
MUTATE – letter from Greek (MU), gallery – our favourite (TATE).
8. Again correct poor Dieter (2-4)
RE-EDIT – anagram (poor) of DIETER.
12. Right to declare one’s a partygoer (5)
RAVER – right (R), declare (AVER).
14. On reflection it failed to get straightened (6)
TIDIED – on reflection it (TI), failed (DIED).
15. Entertains Rex, say, with beers (7)
REGALES – Rex (R), say (EG), beers (ALES).
16. I’m pursuing figure immediately (6)
STATIM – I’m (IM) pursuing (after) figure (STAT – as in statistic). Statim means immediately/straight away. This crossword has made me realise, once again, how much I don’t know!
17. Good length bindweed regularly and effortless moved (6)
GLIDED – good (G), length (L), b(I)n(D)w(E)e(D).
19. Willow tree somehow rose around one (5)
OSIER – anagram (somehow) of ROSE around one (I).
20.Regret penning English verse for show (5)
REVEU REVUE – regret (RUE) penning (holding) English and verse (E V).
22. Snitch irate to be missing tips (3)
RAT – missing the tips off i(RAT)e.

92 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1786 by Juno”

  2. Date: Tue, 12 Jan 2021

    FOI: 24a STRESSED
    LOI: 20d REVUE

    Time to Complete: DNF

    I did not like this crossword at all. I got nowhere with it. A real tough one for me. Can’t think of anything else to say about it.

    Aids Used: TftT

    Total Answered: A very small number

    PS: What is a NINA that I see spoken of here?

    Edited at 2021-01-12 03:32 pm (UTC)

    1. I’m sure somebody else will answer in more depth, but basically a Nina is a hidden theme, named after a cartoonist (?) who used to hide the name of his daughter, Nina, in his pictures. As for the difficulty of this puzzle, I agree, it was one of the hardest I remember.
    3. This one was hard so don’t despair. It was hard because of some obscure vocabulary brought on by the Nina. It really is worth your while to look at jackkt’s post early today (on page one of comments) which explains it. Sometimes getting a completion or good time is good, sometimes it’s a great clue or two – but today it was this wonderful creation of kaleidoscope rotating words/letters – a different enjoyment but a good one.
  3. This was definitely as hard as some of the 15x15s I’ve tried. I gave up on the SW after about 65 minutes, but then managed to get TO ORDER I think which enabled me to get TIDIED and then tentatively put in STATIM and OSIER, neither of which I’ve ever heard of. Probably about 70 minutes or just over in total then, though I was far from confident that I had everything right. I partially spotted the Nina in that I saw that the top line was the reverse of the bottom, but I only saw all the other reversals when I was just about to come on here a few hours later. Hats off to Juno for creating such a puzzle. I agree that Ninas can result in a few obscure words, but as long as the wordplay is clear, that’s not necessarily a problem. My one slight criticism therefore, is that two of the obscure words, REDROOT and OSIER, were clued by anagrams in this case, making them pretty much impossible until you’ve got some checkers in place. Admittedly though, once all the checkers are in place, there wasn’t much else they could be. Couldn’t remember RHINO for money, but now I dredge my mind, maybe I have come across it before. I do think I’ve seen MAT for MATT, and TOILE has certainly come up, more than once I’d say, so I was surprised to read some of the regulars saying it was new to them. Anyway, thanks Chris and, of course, Juno. Keep those Ninas coming.
  4. I’ve read a lot of the comments but apologies if I’m repeating – I had to write out today’s date and the timing of the Nina became obvious

    6.41 for me. Didn’t twig till the stressed/desserts combo slapped me round the face

    Tricky but one of those where I knew the GK

    Good fun. Thanks all

    2. That’s brilliant! Never occurred to me. Thank you. If you haven’t then I’ll reply to jackkt who first spotted the nina.
  5. So pleased to have completed this one (in 20 minutes) – at times it seemed we were heading for a DNF. We hadn’t heard of some of the words but worked them out through Juno’s clever clues – excellent puzzle. As usual we didn’t spot the nina….one day perhaps.

    FOI: desserts
    LOI: toile
    COD: mutate

    Thanks for the blog Chris.

  6. ….because it’s what I call a “Look at me, aren’t I clever ?” puzzle. Unknown word clued as an anagram (REDROOT), brand name with two possible spellings (ROTAVATOR/ROTOVATOR), any number of loose clues (eg DIDDLE), and a Latin word I’ve never seen used in English (STATIM).

    The rest of you can applaud – I’m not bothering to submit it, even though I was inside 5 minutes.

    1. I think STATIM might be one of those words you are more likely to see in English, not Latin, as indicated below.
      I’m not sure cluing REDROOT as an anagram is “unfair”, in fact it’s possibly the fairest way of doing it given the constituents are recognisable.
      The beauty of cryptic clues is you can clue things like ROTAVATOR and not worry about the alternative spellings.

      FGBP

  7. An amazing Nina but it was certainly difficult. Doesn’t Juno have a reputation for setting hard QCs? I did the SE corner then the NW but had problems with the rest. DNK rhino, redroot or mat for matt. I had a feeling that Statim meant ‘immediately’ and I put it in even though it wasn’t in my Chambers and when I remembered willow could be osier, I cracked the SW except for 24a. I couldn’t do 6d, 7d (should have got that) or 12a so DNF although I generally enjoyed it.
    FOI tramp COD rotavator (or deliver) Well done Juno and thank you Chris for explaining the clues I biffed.
    Blue Stocking
  9. Am I the only one to biff REDROOT and then see Wiki tell me it grows in woods not a bog.

    Edited at 2021-01-12 07:30 pm (UTC)

    1. According to Collins:

      1. a bog plant, Lachnanthes tinctoria, of E North America, having woolly yellow flowers and roots that yield a red dye: family Haemodoraceae
      2. another name for pigweed (sense 1)

  10. Shocked to have done so which suddenly helped with so many answers…
    But it was still very hard with some dodgy definitions as others have said.
    Appreciated the craft but overall didn’t feel satisfied.
    I was surprised to see that so few of everyone actually saw the Nina – it just goes to show how good you are not to have to have noticed! I wouldn’t have completed without that knowledge and needed an aid to unblock the last four – Mutate, Statim, Eliot and Toile.
    Thanks all
    John George
  11. Simply astonishing! What a beautiful puzzle. I say that in hindsight of course. I am yet to spot a NINA before coming here and being shown. Nevertheless, brilliant work by Juno.
    1. I spotted the Nina right at the end, as I was putting in ROTAVATOR. I studied Latin for four years but do not remember STATIM from that time. I discovered it when watching “House”; the eponymous grumpy doctor would require things to be done “Stat!” A little investigation revealed that this was an abbreviation of “statim” which of course meant “immediately “.
  14. Well, I struggled and chewed a lot on this one.
    No problem with STATIM. It is very common medical use (STAT – ie take straight away as opposed to OD, BD, TDS (Once/Twice/Three times per day), AC/PC before/after food etc. NHO RHINO as money, did not spot the NINA but have gone back to admire its elegant construction.
    Too many clues were biffed and half parsed. Thanks to Joker et al for a brain storm and the insightful explanation.
  15. Ridiculously difficult with obscure words all down to the setter deciding to do a Nina. I just wish they wouldn’t do it. Hate Ninas with a passion. Ruined what could have been a good crossword
    1. Suggest you chill and contemplate the difficulty of setting (and beauty of) such a kaleidoscope of mirror letters within a grid. An easy QC fix can’t be everything, surely?
    2. I’ve seen a few QCs with more obscurity than this one and which have not had anything else going on in them.
      But I’m not sure that is saying a lot: “obscurity” is very subjective.
      STATIM is the only word here that caused a raised eyebrow.

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